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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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Old 03-08-2016, 08:12 AM
WNC Goater WNC Goater is offline
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Alabama Damascus

Finished up my first knive in Alabama Damascus. "The Longbeard".
Blade thickness is .115, overall length = 7 1/4", with Japanese Chestnut scales. Three coats of BLO and three coats of poly acrylic. I made this one with a hidden tang. I tried to do a solid handle and drill it out for the tang but I believe I need a jig or clamp in the drill press to hold things at a consistent angle. I ended up with the tang hole kind of "wallered out", to use a local term, and drilled at a slight angle. So I split the handle, making two scales and mortised out the "pocket" for the tang using a wood chisel. I used a black fiber spacer rather than have a glue line. 1/8" Brass pins.

I also wanted to fit the scales tightly to the steel but have come to the understanding why people use a spacer(I suppose is the term) or bolsters with hidden tangs. I used sterling silver I rolled out from an old sterling fork and put a hammered finish on. I then silver soldered it onto the tang/back of the blade. I do not know, or haven't solved, the mystery of getting everything tight to the blade without solder. Heck, this works anyway.

Andy Garret mentioned he's heard good things about the Alabama Damascus. It heat treated easily enough, per their directions 1550? 3 minutes then a 350? draw for 1.5 hours. It finished out easily, took the etching great. Edge deflection tests look good as does overall blade flexibility. This is thinner steel and ground down with a full flat grind. I made it as a bird/trout/small game knife. It remains to be seen how well it will hold its edge but it will easily take a very sharp, heck, scary sharp edge. We'll see.







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Old 03-08-2016, 08:34 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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If you want to see an easy way to drill out a handle for a hidden tang I have a detailed explanation for how that can be done in my Shop Built Chef knife video. I have moved the thread about that video back to near the top of this forum so you can find it easily and read about it. In the video I build a chef's knife but everything I do in the video would have been exactly the same if I had built your knife with a hidden tang ...


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Old 03-08-2016, 12:28 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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The jig that you need is nothing more than a board with a short screw sticking through it. s quarter or 3/8's inch will do. Center the point under your drill head with a straight metal rod chuck up in it and clamp the board in place so that it won't move. Do this with the table of the drill press fully lowered or at least lowered enough to where you can get the handle block under the drill bit.

Then mark the centers on both ends of the block and center punch them. Place one indentation on the screw on the board and line up the drill bit on the other end and drill out as far as that bit will allow you. You then switch ends and put the hole that you have drilled over the screw, that's why you need screw that's a bit larger than the hole you'll drill, and drill the other end. The ends should meet up and leave you with an accurate hole through the handle block.

If the drill bit is less than half the length of the block you might have to get and extended shank drill bit to complete the job.

This is a tip that I got off one of Bill Moran's videos.

Doug


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angle, blade, bolsters, brass, damascus, drill, edge, etching, fixed blade, flat grind, handle, hidden, japanese, jig, knife, knives, made, pins, press, scales, sharp, spacer, steel, tang, wood


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